July 1st, 2008
Analyst: Microsoft ‘tone deaf’ about SOA
Ron Schmelzer has been studying Microsoft’s SOA strategy, and has determined that the software giant doesn’t quite get SOA yet. As he put it in a recent article at SearchSOA:
Microsoft defines SOA as integration, not broader Enterprise Architecture
“ZapThink sat on a briefing on Microsoft’s SOA messaging, and we’re astounded by the inadequacy, inaccuracy, and tone deafness on their SOA message. Bottom-line: the official message coming from Microsoft about SOA is that SOA is just Web services-based integration. What is particularly disappointing is that Microsoft has coined their own definition of the term ‘SOA’ in defiance of what is increasingly becoming accepted as the understanding that SOA is an aspect of Enterprise Architecture, not a technology focused on standards-based integration.”
Ron’s comments echo those of Judith Hurwitz a couple of weeks back, who also pointed out that Microsoft has been moving too slow into the SOA realm. But while Judith said Microsoft was slow on the draw, Ron said Microsoft just doesn’t get it, period.
Both Judith and Ron point out that Microsoft traditionally has catered all its life to the developer and techie community, and has had not had a large footprint at the enterprise level. As Ron puts it, Microsoft keeps focusing on system interoperability, when SOA is about business transformation. “Microsoft has made a critical (if not fatal) mistake of turning SOA into a developer initiative focused on standards-based interoperability,” he said. “Their punchline is that SOA is about ‘connected business.’ Isn’t that what B2B integration and XML is basically about?”
It’s interesting to see that a number of analysts and observers (not Ron and Judith) have declared SOA a failure thus far, because it is still relegated to integration and smaller projects, versus broader enterprise transformation. Surveys I have been involved with find that organizations that truly have what can be considered enterprise SOA efforts underway are still in the minority. Among small to medium size companies, its a very small fraction, usually in the range of 20%-30%, who are moving in that direction.
Microsoft appears to be more tuned to the current situation of most customers — wrestling with spaghetti code but not quite ready to go full-throttle on SOA — than trying to get out front and lead them to the promised land.
Ron said Microsoft, in fact, is missing out on its potential to truly lead in the SOA space. “If Microsoft can understand that SOA is about service consumption just as much as it is about service provision, they have a chance to shine. By limiting their story on SOA to one of connecting disparate, but still monolithic systems using standards-based technology, they’ve missed the true opportunity that SOA offers.”
We all know how Microsoft can be quite persuasive at prodding customers to move to new systems. And .NET is proving its worth as an environment that can support SOA initiatives. Yet, as Ron and Judith pointed out, the vendor isn’t taking a leadership role yet with SOA.
Joe McKendrick is an author and consultant with deep knowledge and insights regarding trends and developments in the technology industry. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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